There Must Be Some Misunderstanding

Here we go...

8:31 a.m.
raptorgirl: brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
HWG: IT'S COLD IN HERE
HWG: I SAID THERE MUST BE A RAPPY IN THE AT-MOS-PHERE!
HWG: *cheerleads*
raptorgirl: what are you on?
HWG: I am high on life

8:56 a.m.
Rappy chooses CD 24-4, Unbelievable Truth's Almost Here. Unbelievable Truth was the lead singer of Radiohead's younger brother's band. He quit because he wanted to go work/live in Russia/Eastern Europe. Now THAT is a good reason to leave a band.

9:00 a.m.
*busy little beavers*

9:51-9:54 a.m.
Zone out while thinking about how dreamy Matthew Settle is. Matthew Settle - my new celebrity crush. I will always have a place in my heart for Orlando Bloom, but he's way too popular now. Crushing on Orly just seems too easy at this point. It's been done. Crushing on Matthew Settle will be more of a challenge simply because he is not well known. I've rented some Band of Brothers DVDs so I can watch him over and over again. Bonus - he's six months older than I am.

10:16 a.m.
Find out that everyone who is giving a presentation at the company's user conference has to have a mug shot ... oh sorry, I mean PHOTO ... taken for the conference program. Um, yeah. Decide that I'll wrap up the morning listening to Pete Yorn's musicforthemorningafter. "Time alone is good..."

10:19 a.m.
Realize that I am freezing cold; make mental note to grab a sweater from home at lunch.

10:20 a.m.
Stuff my face full of Glenny's BBQ Soy Crisps.

10:50 a.m.
Aggressively chair dance to Pete Yorn's "Closet" - "Oh Billy I want you sooooooooooo..." Realize that my new celebrity crush, Matthew Settle, looks a lot like one of my classic celebrity crushes, Billy Campbell. Contemplate the various possibilities if Matthew, Billy and I were ever in the same room.

11:03 a.m.
Emboldened by a thread on Looking Good, Rappy reveals her high school fashion misfit status:

raptorgirl: I wore SUITS. Like fuddy duddy suits. And on many an occasion, shorts with nylons.
HWG: bwahahahahaha!
raptorgirl: My coat was what I see all the newly arrived pakistani immigrants wear.
HWG: oh, um
HWG: shorts with nylons, damn
HWG: did your mom do that?
raptorgirl: nope
HWG: you poor kid

11:25 a.m.
Chart my biorhythmic compatibility with my new celebrity crush, Matthew Settle. Find out that, essentially, we're supposed to have lots and lots of sex, but never actually speak to each other. Hey, fine by me! What else are crushes for?

11:27-11:34 a.m.
Run Ad-Aware software on my computer. Detect 73 naughty little tracking cookies hidden on my hard drive. Delete all. Curse the very existence of pop-up ads. Decide the victory over the bastardly spammers should be commemorated with the consumption of a Diet Coke. Run downstairs to procure same.

12:30 p.m.
Home for lunch!

1:20 p.m.
Stop at Hollywood Video on the way back to work and rent Love Actually and the extras DVD from the Band of Brothers box set. Decide to use current eBay auction's winnings toward purchase of Band of Brothers box set of my very own. Too much in a hurry to get back to work to flirt with tall bald video store clerk, Alden.

1:30 p.m.
Various work-related activities. Zzzzzzzz.

1:58 p.m.
Overg: I love your random update posts
Overg: even when they don't mention me
Overg: although I love them more when they do

2:25 p.m.
HWG: what was I going to do?
Roo: Billy Campbell
HWG: HA!
HWG: I only wish
Roo: oh! hee! picture, I mean!
Roo: dirty girl!

2:30 p.m.
Remember that what I was going to do was write up an incident report about Industry Profile. Ponder who to send the incident too. Decide it should go to everybody's Plan B. Super!

2:35 p.m.
Teem stops the revolving AIM door and escapes from Mr. Meat's clutches. For now...

2:45 p.m.
Banter with John about upcoming user conference. Answer in the negative when asked if I will be using a PowerPoint presentation. Answer in the affirmative about needing a computer onsite. Regale coworkers with tale of how I plan to fill my 45 minutes of presentation time by talking about myself and asking the attendees how their lunch was, how they like Clearwater Beach, and what they plan on doing during the rest of their stay in Florida. Then I will hand out a piece of paper to each that reads, "Content Management - Ask Me How (Later)"

2:55 p.m.
Have craving for Slurpee.

3:02 p.m.
Teem leaves again.

3:07 p.m.
HWG: I am both thirsty and hungry
Roo: then you must both drink and eat

3:07:15 p.m.
Eats the forbidden apple. Sticks FUJI sticker in planner on today's date to commemorate eating of said apple.

4:10 p.m.
Documentation Team meeting concerning team stuff. Go team! Learn that I will now be attending the user conference for three days (May 18-20) and taking notes whenever I'm not making a presentation. Finally, my mad journalism skillz will be put to use here.

4:25 p.m.
Spend five minutes looking at the Alien Quadrilogy box set. Attempt not to drool. Contemplate using eBay winnings to buy this box set rather than Band of Brothers.

4:56 p.m.
Teem comes back. Now trying to think of things to include on a Local Information page for conference attendees.

5:00 p.m.
Teem leaves again.

5:04 p.m.
Craving for one of the chocolate chip cookies on Jake's desk begins. Gnaw on stick of Orbit gum (wintermint flavor) in attempt to make craving abate.

5:05 p.m.
Consume second stick of Orbit. Notice that pack of Orbit was made in Canadia. Throw empty packet in trash, cursing Canadia.

6:01 p.m.
Packin' it in for the day.

Souls For Sale

It seems to be the week of wondering aloud about the morality of mankind. A few days ago I was thinking about how countries treat their own citizens (the Holocaust), and how countries act towards people in need in other countries (Rwanda, the Sudan). Now I'm thinking about how we as individuals treat others.

Specifically, I'm thinking about Kevin Carter.

Kevin Carter was a photojournalist from South Africa who made a career of being right in the middle of suffering and strife. He took amazing photos documenting the atrocities in various African countries, as well as Kosovo. He took one amazing photo in particular:

This is a photo of a starving child. The child is trying to make its way to a feeding station in the distance, out of frame, in the hamlet of Ayod, in southern Sudan, during a time of widespread famine in the area. A vulture is shadowing the child, waiting for it to die so that it may feed.

It is a powerful, unsettling photo. There are specific instances when I believe images convey a story more precisely than words ever can, and that is one of those instances. Sometimes a concept - starvation, mass wartime casualties, etc. - is so abstract that merely reporting the facts doesn't really make a connection with a reader. We read the headlines - "Firefight Kills 25 Marines In Fallujah" - and we understand that a lot of people died, but the true realization of what that means is often not fully felt just by reading the words. As much as I love words, they can at times be antiseptic, especially if you do not have a preexisting, personal connection to the subject. This is especially true in hard news reporting (as opposed to feature writing).

But show us an image depicting starvation, or an image showing the flag-draped caskets of those 25 marines who were killed in action, and we often then have a much fuller understanding of the concept.

So for that reason, I think Carter's photo is an important one. The world agreed - the image won Carter the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 1994.

All Carter had to give up for it was his soul.

He watched this child pull her body along the ground for TWENTY MINUTES in a desperate effort to get to the feeding station, but he did nothing. He did nothing. He was waiting for the vulture to spread its wings so that he might get "the perfect shot." How disappointed he must have been that the vulture wouldn't cooperate.

I understand full well that journalists are supposed to be fair, impartial observers to the events they are documenting. I lived that life for almost 10 years; I know what it means. I know we aren't supposed to become participants, no matter how much we want to.

But Carter got his shot. He had finished being the observer. And yet he still did nothing. Oh, I guess he should be given some modicum of credit for chasing the vulture away. Good show. But then he ran off instead of helping the child reach the feeding station. He could have picked her up and taken her there himself. And if that seemed too much like participating - a line he didn't want to cross - he could have gone to the feeding station and directed them to the child.

But he did nothing.

Where was his soul?

How could he just leave the child there to die?

I could understand his behavior if he was in a position where he was forced to make a decision between getting the photo - an image that would "make the world weep" and do a great public service by helping people better understand what starvation looks like - and helping the child. But he didn't have to choose one or the other; he could have done both. I will never understand why he chose not to.

Carter committed suicide two months after receiving the Pulitzer Prize.

No Mo' Melanoma

My mom got the pathology report back from her second surgery and was told that they got all of the tumor, it wasn't very deep (i.e. it was Stage I) and there's nothing more she needs to do to treat it! No lymph node biopsy, no other scans ... nothing! WOO!

Again and Again

As I said a few days ago, I've been watching Band of Brothers on the History Channel, and it's been terrific. I'm down to the final episode (thank you, TiVo!), and the penultimate episode, "Why We Fight," depicted Easy Company's entrance into Germany and the company's discovery of one of the Jewish prison camps.

Not an easy thing to depict, of course, but it was done beautifully. It made me feel so many different things - revulsion balanced with empathy, anger offset by despair. The acting in these scenes was incredible - you could see all these different feelings flashing across the soldiers' faces as they began to understand what had happened in this camp. I think the prevalent feeling was shock - shock at what people can do to each other. Shock at how inhuman it is possible for humans to become, under certain circumstances.

There was a scene, after the discovery of the camp (and the ensuing realization of what had happened to these Polish Jews), where soldiers go back into the nearby town to get any food and water they can get their hands on. They go into a bakery and start taking all the bread, to which the baker protests vociferously.

One soldier, Webster, speaks German and translates what the baker is yelling to his fellow paratroopers. "He says he didn't know about the camp," Webster tells them. Then Webster grabs the baker and angrily asks how it was possible that the baker couldn't smell the burning and rotting flesh permeating the town. "You KNEW!" Webster shouts. The baker continues protesting, and another soldier says, "C'mon, Web. He says he didn't know."

"He didn't know?" Webster replies, looking at the baker with contempt. "BULLSHIT."

At the end of the episode, statistics were quoted - during what would become known as the Holocaust, Hitler's Germany oversaw the slaughter of six million Jews, and two million other ethnic minorities. Which is genocide, a term created in 1944 specifically to define what happened during the Holocaust. Ordinary citizens had knowledge of what was happening and did nothing.

I'm not sure it's fair to blame them for that, though. Perhaps they feared for their own lives, if they spoke out? Perhaps they just didn't think that their voice would make any difference?

But it got me thinking about genocide, and what our moral imperative is when we know that genocide is happening. Both myself as an individual, and the United States as a country. I don't think that, as individual citizens, we can do very much to prevent or stop the government-sanctioned slaughter of an entire race, religion or ethnic class of people. But I do think that the United States government does have a moral imperative to do whatever is necessary to stop genocide from occuring, even if we have nothing specifically to gain from it ourselves. We should do it because it's the right thing to do.

We're willing to fight over oil rights and our way of life. We're willing to fight to maintain or national safety and integrity. None of which I seriously disagree with. Why aren't we willing to fight simply because fighting is the right thing to do?

Because genocides are still occuring (if you click on only one link in this piece, please make it this one), even after we've documented the horrors of the Holocaust. Do you think that the United States would stand around, willfully ignorant, if millions of Jews were still being executed in Europe? Absolutely not. So why did we stand around while almost one million people were slaughtered during ethnic cleansing in Rwanda in 1994?

I guess we were too busy with Vietnam to really care about how Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were in the process of killing 2 million Cambodians (30% of the country's population).

One of the things that infuriates me is the fact that national governments won't call the mass slaughter of hundreds of thousands - based on ethnicity, religion or race - exactly what it is: genocide. Because if they do, according to United Nations resolutions, they are required to act. If the term is used, the U.N. is legally obliged to act to "prevent and punish" the perpetrators.

But we don't want to get involved, so we run around saying that we "condemn these actions and ... call on all parties to cease any such actions immediately." Thanks, President Clinton! I'm sure the Hutus and Tutsis cared a whole hell of a lot that you asked them nicely to stop hacking each other to bits with machetes. Jesus.

And it's still happening. The Arab Janjaweed militia, armed by Sudan's government, are systematically killing and displacing black Sudanese citizens. According to Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, 1,000 black Sudanese are killed every week.

Last week, Kristof used his column to talk about what is being done - or not done - to prevent the situation in the Sudan from reaching Rwanda-like proportions. There is a tentative cease-fire in place, but this statement couldn't be more true – "It's a fallacy to think that just because we can't do everything to stop genocide, we shouldn't do anything."

Duckies!

I have two sets of ducks that come around every spring. One is a pair of Florida Mottled Ducks, and the other is Harold and Maude, a pair of pretty li'l mallards. Today I fed them some bread and they let me get kinda close:

Not much has been going on. I've had allergies all day today, so I'm wiped out. My mom had more surgery on Friday; hopefully the pathology report will come back with good news early this week.

I've also been watching the series Band of Brothers on the History Channel. If you are at all interested in World War II history, I recommend watching it. It's a powerful, moving experience.

And Then There Were Two

So, who do you think is going to get to hear YOU'RE HIRED from Donald Trump tonight on the finale of The Apprentice? I honestly don't care! No, really. I'd be happy with either Kwame or Bill winning. I think I like Kwame a little more, but Bill is cuter. What does that have to do with running a business? Nothing. But it has everything to do with entertaining me.

Angel continues to limp towards the finish. Happiness was found in the casting of Adam Baldwin (Noel Rohroaereroaerer from The X-Files)(and lots of other stuff) as the new conduit to the senior partners, for two reasons. One, I really like Adam Baldwin. He's a good actor and tall and manly and stuff. Two, I really hate the character of Eve and think the "actress" who plays her - name unknown - is almost wholly without talent. Sadly I think she'll still be in these last episodes, but now that she's no longer the conduit - and therefore no longer immortal - my hope is that she will DIE! DIE! DIE! very soon.

And as much as I love Lindsey, the trade of Linney for Gunn was kinda lame. Way for the character of Gunn to go out with a whimper, huh? Quite a bit different than the character he was when he first appeared on the show.

AeonFred needs to die soon too. She talks too much.

In sober political news, Thomas Friedman's op-ed piece in today's New York Times is quite interesting. It compares the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza with what needs to happen in Iraq re: the U.S. turning over governance of the country to Iraqis. He makes very good points about how "there is nothing like the burden of responsibility to promote accountability."

I also love the opening to today's column by Maureen O'Dowd:

HEH! It's funny because it's true. And the ending is equally good:

Of EEEEEEEEEs and $$$$$s - Part II

Okay, so where was I? Oh yes, we went back to my apartment after exhausting ourselves with shopping.

I showed Roo around my swinging bachelorette pad (heh) and in fairly short order we received a call from the esteemed Rappy. So we did the EEEEEEEEEEEEEE thing with Rappy for a li'l bit, then sat back and chilled. I called Bonefish Grill to try and make a reservation for dinner, but their first available was 9:30 p.m., so suddenly we had to switch gears. Eventually we decided on Olive Garden.

By then it was almost 7, but we were still a little full from lunch so we decided to go down to Super Target before dinner. So ... VROOM! Off we went.

We bought various and sundry things at the ST: Diet Coke for Roo, Diet Sunkist and Diet Mountain Dew Code Red for me. A reversible pink/black belt for her, black yoga pants (for $10!) for me. I also inexplicably bought two travel sizes of toothpaste. Yeah, I don't know why either. Roo picked up a straw purse and a kicky little peach-colored flower hair clip. It's all about accessorizing, don't you know?

And then it was off to dinner. When we were almost there we got a call from our beloved Teem, so we did the EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE thing with her a li'l bit, too. Once inside the restaurant we were seated up in a section that was kinda warm and humid. It was weird. We ordered sangria, and it was Good. So good that I asked our waitress if it would be possible to get a "pitcher minus two glasses" of it, because I knew I wanted more but I didn't want to pay for a whole pitcher AND the glasses. She was very cool and said she'd just tell the kitchen that the glasses were her mistake and we had asked for a pitcher all along.

We gave her a very good tip.

I ordered the Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo (Grilled beef medallions drizzled with balsamic glaze, over fettuccine and spinach tossed in a gorgonzola-alfredo sauce, topped with sun-dried tomatoes and it was FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC) and Roo got the Mediterranean Shrimp Scampi (I think). We got a li'l bit tipsy and Roo pointed out that one of the waiters at the next table sounded exactly like Kermit the Frog. And she was right - I closed my eyes to listen, and it was as if Kermit was right there with me. So then I had to try valiantly to stop myself from laughing out loud, and eventually resorted to burying my face in my hands to try to avoid a public guffaw.

We got home around 10:30, and then I had to clean Scuddy's cage. Roo let Scuddy crawl on her a little bit; she's such a trooper. Then we called Tiff back, praised Caygeon for coming out to visit, screwed around online a little bit, checked email, and then realized around midnight that we were both exhausted and needed to go to bed.

And thus ends my first day with Roo!

A new day dawned early, though. I woke up around 8 a.m. and checked on Scuddy, whom I had exiled to my closet (she's normally on the counter in the kitchen, but she runs on her wheel all night and I knew there was no way Roo would be able to get to sleep with that racket in the background). Well, for some reason Scuddy had rearranged her cage - she had pushed her food bowl and exercise wheel around, and shoved almost all of the pine shavings into her little house, packing it tightly. It was really weird. I guess she wasn't happy being someplace with absolutely no light.

So I brought her out to the kitchen to fix her cage. Roo was up already, too, but probably could have gone back to sleep if I had let her. But no! I had to feed the cats (Dawsey was cryyyyyyyying).

So we decided to face the day. Showers and food were had by all. We prettied ourselves up and were out the door at 11:40 a.m. (take that, Teefee!).

First stop was Stein Mart, because I wanted to look at jewelry. I couldn't find anything, but Roo struck gold with an ADORABLE white skirt with black embroidered flowers and a purse that was just the coolest thing ever - white with pink, fuchsia, and black flowers (and more colors, I think), a black/white striped lining, and pink translucent plastic handles. It was sooooooooooooooo cute.

We popped into Hallmark to buy a card, then went in search of lunch. I couldn't think of anything interesting, so we lamed out and went to Applebees.

Well. We were seated and told that our server, Brooke, would be by shortly. And then we realized that we had been seated across from a obnoxious drunk guy, a woman and a teenager. Eventually a fairly personable and funny and big and tall and bald waiter, NotBrooke, came by to take our drink/food order. He joked about how he was going to steal our table from Brooke, but Brooke eventually showed up. Which was too bad, because NotBrooke was so much cooler.

But back to the drunk guy. Roo and I were both trying to figure out what was happening at that table. She had a better view of the man, and I had a good view of the women. I think it was a mother/daughter, but they looked close enough in age that they might have been sisters. But I think it was more a case of a woman having her kid very young.

Beyond that, we couldn't really figure out the relationship between the three people. Was the drunk guy mom's new boyfriend, meeting the daughter for the first time? Was he the daughter's online boyfriend, meeting the mom for the first time? Was he a pimp? A drug dealer? A complete asshole? All of the above? It was obvious that, whatever was going on, the women didn't know the man very well.

He was loud, rude, and ordered two more bloody marys during the course of our lunch. I had ordered a half Oriental Salad (which, if you've never had it, you really must - it is incredibly good) and Roo got the Veggie Patch Pizza. We both ate very quickly, trying to get away from Obnoxious Drunk Guy.

Oh, there was also a dad and his four toddlers at the table beside us. The toddlers were much more well behaved than the drunk guy, go figure.

After lunch we hit Old Navy (no purchases), Peltz Shoe Store (no purchases), and Famous Footwear, where Roo finally found a cute pair of black strappy shoes to wear with her Easter outfit. My contribution to the shoe shopping was basically to bitch and bitch and bitch about the dearth of wide widths in anything resembling cute shoes. Yes, I am bitter.

Then we went over to my mom's house. We did the meet-n-greet with my mom and stepdad, then my nephew Alex came over and everyone (minus my stepdad) played a rip-roaring round of Aggravation. My mom kicked our butts. It was a lot of laughs, though. Then we played with the dog, Maggie, but pretty soon it was time to leave and go to Carmelitas for a dinner of high-quality Mexican food.

Only, no! No! Carmelitas kinda sucked! I don't know what happened with that place. It used to be really good, but now? Not so much. We ordered cheese dip to go with the tortilla chips, and I swear to god it was Cheez-Whiz. Or something equally as heinous. The entrees were merely average. Roo convinced me to try a margarita, since I had never had one, and now I can safely say, from experience, that I jus' don' like 'em.

So we got the hell out of Carmelitas and hit the road for Sun City Center. The drive went by quickly and suddenly we were at Roo's grandpa's house again. I got to meet RooGrandpa and RooGrandpa'sGirlfriend, and they were both just adorable. And RooGrandpa gave me bottled water for my drive home.

And then I had to leave, which was sad, because Roo is so much fun to be around. But we had big hugs and EEEEEEEEEs and vowed to get together in Atlanta soon. But we would never, ever do that without Teem there too. Never. EVER. Must have Teem.

*raises Teem*

Of EEEEEEEEEs and $$$$$s - Part I

Or, Weekend With Rooey.

I picked Roo up from her grandpa's house in Sun City Center on Good Friday. Appropriate, no? I got down there about 11 a.m., skipped up to the front of the house, and heard Roo "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"ing before she even opened the door. We gave each other big hugs and jumped up and down and squealed and stuff. Because yay! We were finally meeting in person!!

Roo wasn't ready yet, so we chatted while she finished packing her overnight (at my house) bag. I admired her grandpa's house (especially the carpet), Roo showed me the photos he had displayed of her family (Roo's brother? HOT. But married.), and then Roo gave me the birthday presents she had brought for me. She gave me: a collection of letters by Flannery O'Connor, one of my favorite authors; a box os HAMSTER holiday cards (hee!); and several magnets, including one from Texas which is hysterical.

(I'll take a photo of the magnet and link to the FO'C book later, when I'm home.)

And then we were off! We drove back to Tampa, and our first stop was the Saks Fifth Avenue at Westshore Plaza. Roo has wanted to look at some schtuff at a Bobbi Brown counter, and the Saks BB counter is where my favorite makeup artist, Carol, works. But before we went to the BB counter, we got sidetracked at the Chanel counter. The new sheer Glossimers were on display, and I wanted to give them a look. The sales assistant came over and we started talking about the Volumizing Lash Powder that was shown on the display and marked LIMITED EDITION.

Well, if you don't know, when you have product-hungry lemmings like Roo and I do, anything marked LIMITED EDITION becomes something to covet. And so we did. Because the SA told us about how wonderful it was, how glorious, how it cures the common cold and brings you your slippers when you get home from work and cooks you dinner and gives you hugs and holds your hair back when you're sick, and OH BY THE WAY, it's sold out.

"Sold out" is lemming code for "MUST HAVE RIGHT NOW!"

Then we went on to the BB counter. Carol was working, but she was doing stock so the male makeup artist, Chris, came over to help Roo pick out eyeshadow to try on. Chris looked really familiar to me, but I couldn't place him. Roo admired the Lilac Shimmerwash eyeshadow, so Chris set about putting that on her.

I'll let Roo describe Chris, since she actually talked to him more than I did, but I felt he came off as just a leetle bit bitchy. About five minutes later I realized where I had seen him before - he was at the Nordstrom Trend Show I attended in March. While I was having my BB makeover done by the national artist (Kari) at the show, Chris was the MA working on someone at the next chair over. I thought he was bitchy then, too.

But anyway, bitchy as he might have been, he did a fabulous job on Roo's eyemakeup - the Lilac looked gorgeous on her and she ended up buying that (and another e/s, Black Plum). I limited myself to one of the Lip Tints in a new summer color, Melon. I seem to be on a kick of buying orange-y lipglosses. Which I guess is good; I'm branching out from my standard colors.

We browsed the Narrrrrrrs counter next. Roo was searching for an Orgasm, but she decided against buying one. I was looking for Sin but decided it wouldn't suit me very well. Then we nosed around MAC a little bit, but eh - MAC is just MAC. I wanted to go to the Prescriptives counter at Burdines-Macys, because it is the only Px counter in this area that does the custom blending of foundation (i.e. they mix up the color to match your specific skin tone).

So off we traipsed to Prescriptives. On the way there we popped into a few stores. Babana Republic didn't have the earrings I've been wanting. Roo took me into a housewares store (I can't remember the name) to show me the monkey lamp she wants, but they didn't have it in stock. We got to Burdines-Macys and were promptly assaulted by perfume women wanting to hand us stuff, and we both ran away screaming.

The Prescriptives counter was playing 80s music for some reason. The one song I remember was "It's Raining Men," which Roo sang along to. She has a good voice, too; much better than mine.

So the Px sales assistant matches me up, and I must say, she did an amazing job because this foundation matches my skin PERFECTLY. I told her I wanted to wear it around for a few hours and view it in natural light before I made the decision to buy it (it is pricey at $62), so we left Westshore Plaza and headed up the street to International Plaza, because that's where Nordstrom and California Pizza Kitchen live.

Because we were hungry, yo. We sprinted through Nordstrom to get to CPK, waited about 10 minutes for a table, and then on the way in Roo chats up the gay boy greeter because his name tag said he was from Atlanta. Here's something about Roo - she can chat up anyone. She's so open and friendly and ... ebullient, really ... that I think she makes complete strangers feel immediately comfortable with her. It was really impressive to see.

And then, we noshed. Roo ordered the Liquid Taco (i.e. the tortilla soup) and a salad (she was observing Good Friday, after all), but I observed no such thing and tried the Sante Fe Chicken pizza, since Roo highly recommended it. And I could understand why after eating it - that sucker was GOOD! Lime-marinated chicken, cilantro, cheese, fresh tomatoes, and sour cream. Yum-may!

Next we spent quality time in Nordstrom. We looked at makeup. We looked at jewelry. We looked at handbags and scarves and shoes, oh my! Roo was on a quest for pink shoes, but the ones she had admired on the Nordstrom website didn't work out in person. We went upstairs to look at clothes, and there was a STUPID CUTE red handkerchief-print skirt that we both admired. Seriously, it was freaking adorable (I will link to it later). It wasn't really my style, though, and they didn't have one in Roo's size, so we sadly had to pass it up. But I think Roo might order it from the Nordstrom website.

Then we went to Dillards, still on the quest for pink shoes (not to mention strappy black shoes). Roo struck out on both accounts. We stopped at the Chanel counter to look for the beloved lash powder, but it was covered by a piece of plastic on the display. Roo and I took that to mean they were sold out, but Roo played at trying to pry off the plastic covering in order to steal the display model ... and the snotty Chanel sales wench gave her the stink-eye! AS IF!

We went upstairs in search of the bathroom, and after getting directions from four different sales associates - "It's blah blah blah over there *points*", "It's around that wall over on the back wall, to the right", "It's just over there on the right", and "You're almost there! It's right down there." - we finally found it. You'd think we were searching for the Holy Grail or something.

We milled around the mall a little more, and by that time I had made the decision to purchase the insanely-expensive-yet-wonderful foundation from Prescriptives, so we drove back to that mall so I could pick it up.

And then we went back to my apartment!

Since this is becoming epic, I'm going to take a break right here and continue on a little later.

Poor, Neglected Site

My site hates me because I haven't posted on it in a week. *sob*

Anyway, little miscellaneous things I will briefly catch you up on:

1. My mom has melanoma, but we don't yet know how serious it is. She goes back to the doctor for another, more extensive surgery on the 16th.

2. Roo is in town and we're going to hang out on Friday and Saturday. Woo!

3. That new reality show The Swan sucks so profoundly that, after one viewing, I will never be watching it again. I will expound on its suckitude later.

4. I think the situation in Iraq is going to blow up soon. Literally. And every time I want to remind myself that people are more than statistics, I look at this list of casualties.

5. I continue to love and adore my TiVo.

6. My new celebrity crush is Josh Hopkins, who plays DA Kite on Cold Case. And am hot.

7. Touching Evil on the USA Network is a terrific new show and you should be watching it (Friday nights at 10 p.m.).

8. I got my highlights redone two weekends ago and now I am much blonder. I will consider blessing you with a photo of my hair at some point in the future.

9. Condoleeza Rice is going to get her ass kicked by the 9/11 Commission today. I don't think she deserves it, necessarily, but the Bush administration has trotted her out like a show pony to all the talk shows, and now payback is the proverbial bitch.

10. I still hate Peeps.